The need to accommodate a fairly large size range is particularly important in integrated child seats because they are built into the vehicle seat and therefore cannot be easily removed and replaced by a larger model as can be done with stand alone child seats.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,224,756 discloses an early commercially available integrated child seat which illustrates one manner of accommodating a size range of between a 20-pound child and a 40-pound child. The integrated child seat itself is a modular unit capable of being mounted between two horizontally spaced seat back bolsters provided on a seat back frame assembly suitably mounted with respect to the seat cushion assembly. The modular unit included a main back panel on which upper and lower movable cushion assemblies are mounted. When disposed in an adult seat mode, the upper and lower movable cushion assemblies provide cushions which fill in the space between the bolsters. In the child seat mode, the lower cushion assembly is pivoted downwardly to rest on the seat cushion assembly to provide the child's seat and the upper movable cushion assembly is pivoted upwardly and locked therein to provide the child's head support. A removable pad is removably secured to the upper surface of the child's seat and along the rigid back panel to provide therewith a cushioned child's back support.
A child's seat belt assembly is provided solely to accommodate children of smaller size. In order to accommodate the larger child, the child's seat belt assembly is stored behind the removable pad and the adult seat belt assembly is used. The child's seat belt assembly provided is of the five-point type including shoulder belts which extend through a pair of horizontally spaced and horizontally aligned openings in the rigid back panel. The shoulder belts extend from the openings behind the rigid back panel and are combined into a single belt which ultimately extends out of the front of the lower movable cushion assembly through a one-way lock therein which permits the shoulder belts to be adjusted to accommodate the particular small child being restrained.
A more commonly used manner of accommodating a large size range of children in an integrated child seat, particularly where the seat back is higher than the usual van rear bench seat, is to provide a series of vertically spaced pairs of horizontally spaced and horizontally aligned openings through which the shoulder belts can be selectively extended. An example of this type of accommodation is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,135,285.